*Courtesy Of The Wrestle Talk Podcast With Joe & Rene* Check out the latest episode from our friends at The Wrestle Talk Podcast With Joe & Rene as PWO’s own Nick Guest Hosts for the first hour of the show, which features interviews with Victor Romanoff And Searcher. Link Below: […]

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/8/17)

A Stand Against SAnitY

– Well, nothing quite says “Welcome Back To Full Sail University” like the darkness and haunting realism of SAnitY’s entrance. Look Mom, Mad Max has some new friends. Once they get in the ring, we’re subjected to some subtle hardcore dancing from Alexander Wolfe as we wonder what the hell this group is out for so soon into the show. The silence was broken by upbeat Indian music, as The Bollywood Boyz came out with a cultured toy to raise some fun or something like that. Nah, they’re gonna get their asses kicked. In case you wondered, Eric Young/Nikki (not NXT Women’s Champion) Cross would sit this one out. As the match begins, it’s rather hard to not notice Killian Dain’s rampant back hair. Just imagine a furry bear and translate that to a human being. You’ve met your match. Funnily enough, at that point, the Full Sail faithful break out a “Shave your back!” chant. See, they’re not all that resentful. The bout goes on and it’s basically Dain having his way with the fun-lovers. He powerbombed one on top of the other and hit a senton on both. Just, ouch. On top of it all, he hits that sweet move that transitions from an electric chair to the Michinoku Driver. Wolfe never even tagged in, which goes to show that they accomplished the goal to make Dain look scary, though his back hair already did that. Post-match, Cross screamed for Champion Asuka, because well, she’s crazy. Young bragged about his victory over Tye Dillinger at TakeOver: San Antonio and again claimed that “The Perfect 10” belonged with them and it wasn’t a choice anymore. Right. This is like the friendliest group ever.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/25/17)

Femme Fatale Four-Way

– The Ember Moon-Liv Morgan match was set up last week as a friendly competition to see who’d “unofficially” face the NXT Women’s Champion coming out of NXT TakeOver: San Antonio. Moon was still undefeated, yet Morgan was the one to challenge her. The story was there at least. They exchanged some chain wrestling and rolled around in package pin attempts for a good 25 seconds. Morgan seemed to have improved a bit as she hit a huracanrana. Moon applied a crossface, though Morgan fought out of it with a pin attempt that took Moon’s momentum back. Morgan laid on a guillotine, but was taken and dumped over the top rope by Moon. A minute later, Moon Eclipsed Morgan to take the win. It’s obvious how Moon’s in a holding pattern until TO:SA, but it also helped Morgan here. She could use more of a gimmick than “tough Jersey girl.” It was enough to make us want more, but what we got was good. They shared sportsmanship after the bell to keep the friendship going.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/4/17)

Land Down Under

– The Revival-Riddick Moss/Tino Sabbatelli match was interesting (yet awkward) for heel-heel interactions alone, but we’ll leave it at that. Being that this was the Melbourne, Australia portion of NXT’s December global tour, this was a house show-esque effort. We guess it makes for filler television when needed, but that’s not always good. The Steel Cage match for the NXT Championship between Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe headlined the episode, though they showed it a few weeks back. Check out our review of that match here. Luckily, anything with Revival written on it will generate fan response and the Australians were eager to chant for them. Moss/Sabbatelli have light momentum charisma-wise, but still need to hone their in-ring skills to get anywhere. A little strange when Commentator Corey Graves actually compared Moss/Sabbatelli to WWE Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro/Sheamus. Not much action besides for Revival’s usual “isolate and destroy” style on display. Moss pulled off a few decent spots, namely where he caught Scott Dawson on a high crossbody attempt and countered with a fallaway slam. Nevertheless, the fans showed no interest for Moss and a “Revival” chant actually broke out. Revival’s classic rule bending also garnered a pop in select moments, where Dawson raked Moss’ eyes and they both worked him over in the corner. The crowd booed Sabbatelli’s hot tag sequence, which only meant the Shatter Machine was imminent. Couldn’t come at a better time. Revival win and keep momentum for their rematch next week on NXT when they face NXT Tag Team Champions #DIY for the belts. Yes.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 12/28/16)

Osaka, Osaka

– The opening video hyped up the NXT Championship rematch between Champion (at the time) Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura. Yup, they’d show the entire match again in its entirety (this was even before their steel cage match), but the good part was that we’d see the rest of the Osaka event. A two-hour NXT show on a holiday week? What a gift. By the way, to read our review of the Joe/Nakamura match, check it here.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 11/23/16)

The Cool Kids Get Eclipsed

– The opening video reviewed the glitz of TakeOver: Toronto, when NXT visited the Great White North. Upon the highlights were Paul Ellering in a shark cage, Shane Thorne’s impressive senton off the structure onto The Authors Of Pain, Bobby Roode’s defeat of Tye Dillinger, #DIY’s impeccable win over The Revival to become new NXT Tag Team Champions, Asuka’s successful defense of the NXT Women’s Championship over Mickie James and finally, Samoa Joe’s regain of the NXT Championship over Shinsuke Nakamura.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 11/16/16)

A Shot At Vengeance

– The Liv Morgan-Peyton Royce match was the latest installment in the chronicles of the NXT undercard, which you can gladly call its Women’s Division. Forever a “work in progress,” there has been an attempt to build things with the “Aussie Mean Girls” pair of Billie Kay/Royce, coupled with Liv Morgan – a blonde tomboy Jersey Girl – and Ember Moon – a Mortal Kombat-esque athlete who racks up wins. While Moon has been built on her own, we’ve seen Morgan entangled in a feud lately with the AMG. Where we last left off, we saw Morgan cost Kay a match, as Aliyah upset her. The aggressive start made sense given the feud’s context. Royce delivered a nice tarantula-like submission in the ropes, even though we were entirely distracted with her ring attire that screamed “The Riddler.” The memories stopped there until the finish, when we saw Kay physically assault Morgan before she could make Royce submit. The crowd chanted for Aliyah, who came out and it looked like the heels would enjoy another beatdown. This set the stage for Moon to come down and make the ultimate difference, as she single-handedly took down the AMG before her and Morgan hit stereo dropkicks. We like the idea of Moon to physically get her hands dirty with the rest of the division, but we had enjoyed her solo push and wished they kept her separate from this storyline.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 10/26/16)

On The Up And Up

– The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament First Round match between #DIY (Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa) and Tian Bing/Hoho Lin was a smart way to have #DIY advance while at the same time serve Bing’s in-ring NXT debut. He was the guy who was the first signed superstar from China, so he had a chance to impress and was in the ring with the right guys for it. Lun still is on the lower half of the Cruiserweight Classic talent spectrum, but he wasn’t a prime focus thankfully. Him and Bing worked well enough together to give #DIY a tease at an upset, but when commentary revealed that the winners here would take on NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival in the second round, they might as well have given away the result right there. With #DIY-Revival as past foes, they’d be dumb not to set up another excuse for an encounter and if they beat The Revival there, it could even set up the Tag Title match at NXT TakeOver: Toronto. Maybe we’re thinking too ahead, but they got the first part of the puzzle right, as we saw #DIY win their running knee strike/superkick combo on Lun, which also protected Bing, whom they can build down the road.